Guinea were once one of the leading footballing sides on the African continent,. Producing the winners of the African Champions Cup and seeing their senior team ‘Syli Nationale’ reach the final of the 1976 MTN Africa Cup of Nations tournament held in Ethiopia.
But since, the west Africans have got no further than the quarter-finals at the Nations Cup, although they have qualified for a second successive finals tournament.
It will be Guinea’s eighth appearance at the MTN Africa Cup of Nations finals since they first entered the qualifying competition in 1963.
Their best result to date was runners-up slot at the 1976 event in Ethiopia, where a final round league format was used to determine the winner and Guinea were edged out by Morocco.
In Tunisia in 2004, Guinea managed only for the second time to get past the first round of competition but lost in the quarter-finals in a dramatic finish against Mali, where they took the lead but conceded a last minute goal to go down 2-1.
A growing number of players based in Europe have turned Guinea into a much more intimidating opponent and provided them with an opportunity to create some upsets at the final tournament in Egypt.
Guinea are coached by the Frenchman Patrice Neveu, whose strict disciplinarian approach had seen many regular players left out of the squad for the MTN Africa Cup of Nations finals.
